COLLECTING SINCE 1981, BUT HALF OF ALL NEW
DISCOVERIES INMORMON HISTORY HAVE COME THROUGH MY HANDS SINCE 1991

Posted
July 10, 2013

I am a discoverer and preservationist of legendary and priceless, and
often unrecognized and undervalued, sacred Mormon relics. My
friends call me the
Indiana
Jones
of Mormonism, seeking out things not quite equal to the Ark of the Covenant
and the Holy Grailbut maybe like Joseph Smith
Jr.s
own document file and his own copies of the Mormon scriptures,
letters between his Book of Mormon witnesses, a sun-stone from the old
Mormon temple in Illinois, a map of the Far West village that Joseph carried in
his pocket, or paintings of
Joseph made from life.

I became interested in this at an early age.
My family investigated Mormonism back in Minnesota between 1972 and 1978,
eventually moving to a Mormon historic site in 1980 where I lived on a highway
called Mormon Road, in Burlington, Wisconsin. Burlington was made a Mormon
center by Joseph Smith Sr. in 1835. In the 1840s this was a outpost of the
Mormon headquarters at Nauvoo, Illinois, and some say was Joseph Smith
Jr.s hope for a new headquarters in 1844. The Mormon remnant in
Burlington was a quaint following of a dozen elderly people who instilled in me
a love for their heritage. In 1982 I bought my first Joseph Smith period
Book of Mormon for $2,000 from bookstore in Salt Lake City. In 1991 I
preserved an old stone Mormon house in Burlington. After 1988, though, I
emigrated part-time to Independence, Missouria
more famous Mormon history headquarters from 1831. In fact, Independence
was the place where the rarest Mormon book of all was printed in 1833. My
homes in Wisconsin and Missouri allowed me to criss-cross Illinois a hundred
times to stop in Nauvoo and Carthage, and appreciate the Illinois citizens view
of Mormon history. This Wisconsin, Illinois, and Missouri experience made
me an expert on the divergent views of Mormonism and gives me a free-thinking
perspective of Mormon history.

In the course of this immersion experience, I
grew into
a serious private
collector and church purchaser, responsible for buying $25 million in church library, archives, and museum holdings
totaling
50,000 items. By 2013, I purchased over 100 copies of the first edition Book
of Mormon, 25 copies of the first Doctrine and Covenants, seven copies of
the first Mormon hymn book, and four copies of the Book of Commandments;
as well as hundreds of other books printed before 1844. I have now been
acquainted with Mormonism for 41 years, a student of Mormon history for
34 years, buying rare Mormon books for 31 years, had the
worlds largest private collection for over
20 years, and have been buying books on this Mormonism.com site for 17 years.

Along the way, my discoveries made me broaden from my Midwestern
Mormon expertise and I developed an open-minded expertise in early
Mormon origins, particularly in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania
(1791-1831). Half of all new discoveries of Mormon history in the
past 25 years have been by me. I am working a multi-volume
supplemental history entitled Discoveries in Mormonism which will be
heavily illustrated with art, photographs, and rare books that I have
unearthed. This book will validate the neighbors of Joseph Smith
Jr. from Vermont to Illinois, while remaining friendly to Joseph and the
Book of Mormon as a rightfully consequential literary work.

Although I do not hold myself out as a dealer, I have on occasion
helped to acquire items for other high-end collectors; and freely advise both
buyers and sellers on items valued $5,000 and up made before 1880. If you
are interested in either buying or selling an 1830 Book of Mormon, or any other
rare edition of any Mormon scripture, sacred hymns, newspapers, or tracts
printed before 1880, or any similar quality artwork or artifact, please call or
email me for free help or an evaluation.

My collection strengths are the Joseph
Smith Sr. family and Mormon origins (1791-1860), Joseph Smith Sr.
experiential sites in Vermont and along the Erie Canal and Susquehanna in New
York and Pennsylvania, early Mormon gathering sites (New York,
Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan), the first Mormon temples
(Zion, Far West, Kirtland, and Nauvoo), Mormon scriptures and hymn books (1830-1871),
Mormons in early news (1816-1856), the death of Joseph and Hyrum Smith
(1844),
Mormon presidential succession, (1844-1877), Mormons on the Great Lakes
(1831-1856),
graphic images of early Mormon scenes (1834-1904), early Mormon art
(especially Sutcliffe Maudsley and David W. Rogers), and early Mormon b&w photography
(1844-1939).

I am a responsible collector, paying generously and ethically for rare books, having them properly restored and conserved, and making my collection open to the public and viewable online. I am interested in faithfully preserving the cultural history of the early Mormons. This is my home page dedicated to the acquisition and conservation of rare Mormon books, art, artifacts, graphic images, and autograph documentsparticularly high-end items, those valued at $5,000 and up,
made during the first 50 years of Mormonism (1830-1880). I built this site to discover more rarities with the help of people like you.
Even though my collection has been featured in all of the principal Utah newspapers,
referred to often by the Associated Press in articles
appearing in 500 newspapers, and covered in USA Today and on CNN, few people know how to find me. I am hoping that this site will help.